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Often, e-learning still mainly “send” information. The transmitter transmits information to the receiver. But that's often the case.
The recipient does not (yet) have the opportunity to actually link what he or she has learned online to practice or even put it into practice.
Scenarios can change that!
In this blog, we explain why we love implementing scenarios, how to take the first steps to create your own scenarios, and what to look out for.
Scenarios bring teaching material to life. Imagine reading an article and watching a video about customer friendliness. In the video, you are also confronted with a situation that is less pleasant: a customer is very aggressive and unfriendly. If you then turn off the video, you may have a bad feeling, but this is gone and that's where the learning experience ends.
What if you can then test the skills you acquired in the customer friendliness training yourself? If you can respond to this customer yourself? But in a safe environment: in the simulation of a scenario.
In theory, a scenario looks something like this:
source: https://elearningindustry.com/why-you-should-be-using-scenarios-in-e-learning
The student is thus able to test a number of responses in a safe way, until the response leads to the correct result. An accessible yet very effective way to put theoretical knowledge into practice.
Translating a scenario into daily work practice is a lot easier to make than, for example, translating information into a book into daily work practice.
Note these four steps:
Before you create scenarios, review your learning objectives again. What goals do students who participate in your training ultimately want to achieve? And how can scenarios contribute to this?
These questions will help you get started:
Once you have the answers to these questions clear, you can think about which scenario fits this.
Sometimes a scenario can simply be choosing the right solution, but sometimes it can also be more complex, as in the image above - not all people and personalities are the same, and not every option the student chooses, or every choice the student makes, is automatically right or wrong.
Provide attractive (but realistic) visuals. Visuals appeal and ensure a higher level of student engagement. You can make the visuals realistic by, for example, using the company's logo or a real checkout environment.
You can also use photos, videos, illustrations and Virtual Reality. The better the visuals match daily work practice, the greater the chance that what you've learned will be associated with daily work practice.
An experience where we feel a strong emotion is stored longer and more clearly in our brain than experiences that lacked emotion.
Use this when developing scenarios.
Don't just convey dry knowledge, but relate an emotion to it. Do you feel the difference between these two?
Your student will certainly recognise the last emotions and of course wants to get rid of them: that's where the motivation comes from to pay attention: this is what you want to learn!
You can use different types of media to engage the different senses: video, audio (music, voice), images.
You can also use real actors to get the message across with more emotion. Role playing games are ideal for this.
When the actors respond with emotion to an action taken by the student in the screenplay, the outcome of this action sticks much better with the student.
Just imagine: you click on the next step, choose a follow-up action, and a screen comes up that says “incorrect” OR an actor comes into the picture who starts crying, swearing, or suddenly becoming much friendlier: what would you remember better?
In short: adding scenarios to e-learning is an ideal and creative way to bring teaching material to life.
In Pluvo, you can easily create scenarios. Create a free account and discover the benefits.
As an educational expert specialising in online learning, I have been writing blogs for Pluvo for 5 years. My focus is on powerful learning solutions for organisations. Universal Design for Learning and inclusive learning are my passion; I believe that education should be accessible and fun for everyone.
I've been combining my 35 years of HR experience with copywriting for over 15 years. And even then, I learn new things over and over again. That's what makes writing blogs for Pluvo so incredibly interesting!
